One of the last lions at CBS news has faded from view from the network’s fabled news magazine 60 minutes.

Andy Rooney, 92, and his folksy and often curmudgeonly essays have been a staple of 60 Minutes since 1978. His essays about the foibles of daily life, politics and business have been described as both insightful and irritating.

David Halberstam, another great reporter at the gray lady, has died and followed the route of the legendary R.W. Apple Jr. The writer was a real man. He never apologized for his friends. His friendship lifted many people who needed lifting.